RENO — Rouselle Shepard kept Faith Lutheran’s baseball team alive in its opening game of Thursday’s Class 5A state tournament with an RBI single in the sixth inning to even the score.

He came through with one more big hit in extra innings to get the Crusaders one step closer to playing for a state title.

Shepard drove in three runs on a bizarre single in the top of the eighth to give Faith Lutheran its first lead of the game, and the Crusaders, the South’s No. 2 seed, held on for a 5-2 eight-inning win over Northern champion Bishop Manogue at UNR’s Peccole Park.

Faith Lutheran (22-16) will face Basic at 12:30 p.m. Friday at UNR in a winners’ bracket state semifinal, with the winner advancing to Saturday’s state title game. The Wolves (23-7), the South’s No. 1 seed, defeated the North’s No. 2 seed Reno High 3-0 in the other opening-round game Thursday.

“I just try to keep everything simple as possible, do what the situation calls for and provide for my team,” Shepard, a Miami (Florida) commit, said. “Luckily, I was able to come up big for my team. It could be me, it could be any one of those guys. I have a ton of confidence, and today it was me, tomorrow it could be someone else. So I’m glad we do that and come out with a win.”

Bishop Manogue (28-7) and Reno (25-14) will play in an elimination game at 10 a.m. Friday. The winner will play the loser of Faith Lutheran and Basic in another elimination game later Friday for the second spot in the title game.

“We just stayed the course and carried on. You’ve got to play a full seven (innings) to beat us,” Faith Lutheran coach David Anderson said. “We started 2-7 and a lot of people thought that we’re not very good, but we played hard games, tough games and competed through the year and I expected us to keep doing that. I just would like us to not have to do that every game.”

Shepard, Watkins deliver

Nothing was conventional about Shepard’s single or how the Crusaders loaded the bases. Ace Hansen led off the inning by being safe at first when Mangoue first baseman Nate Lemieux’s foot slipped off the bag, and pinch runner Ethan Gordon went to second on a sacrifice bunt.

Gordon went to third on an Eli Leone single. On a Luke Stringer sacrifice bunt, there was indecision in the Manogue infield, which allowed Stringer to reach first safely to load the bases for Shepard.

The Crusaders’ shortstop singled past Lemieux, and as he tried to go to second, Shepard got caught in a rundown. Shepard was able to advance to third when Manogue’s Blaise Czyz dropped the ball at second base before Shepard was eventually tagged out at third.

“I have so much faith in that guy,” Faith Lutheran starting pitcher Jordan Watkins said of Shepard. “He puts the barrel on everything. With those runs coming in clutch, it’s awesome. I was stoked. I was so excited. I knew he was going to do that. I had a great feeling he was going to cash in right there.”

Watkins retired Manogue in the bottom of the eighth for a complete-game win. The Air Force commit settled in after Manogue jumped to a 2-0 lead after three innings and scattered eight hits and two runs with three strikeouts on 99 pitches.

Thursday wasn’t the first time Watkins went into extra innings this postseason. He pitched 8⅓ innings and earned the win in Faith Lutheran’s 1-0 win over Las Vegas High in the Crusaders’ opening-round game of the Southern Region tournament May 5.

“Even if they applied damage early on, I stayed composed, I stayed within myself, I threw strikes,” Watkins said. “I knew I was going to be confident in everything I threw, so that’s what I did, and we won. I just kept working through it, trust my stuff. That’s all I can do, let the fielders do the work and just keep throwing strikes.”

Shepard finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Hansen was 1-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI on a groundout in the fifth for Faith Lutheran’s first run, and Leone was 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

“We’ve had some moments when in the regular season where we’ve had to come back, and that’s got us ready for big moments in the state tournament,” Shepard said. “Hopefully, we can continue to fight and keep that energy going.”

Evans pitches shutout

Basic starter Lincoln Evans said he told his coaches he wasn’t going to come out of the game as he went out for the top of the seventh inning, working a shutout.

As his pitch count neared the 110-pitch limit for the day, Evans made quick work of Reno to finish off the win. The junior right-hander finished with eight strikeouts and allowed eight hits on 106 pitches.

Evans “manned up,” Basic coach Gino DiMaria said. “He’s been battling all year. He’s 15-0 in his high school career at Basic, and he controlled the game and our guys got some timely hits. We moved runners over, didn’t score a bunch of runs, but we got the runs that we needed.”

Reno’s best chance to crack Evans came in the fifth when the Huskies led off the inning with a pair of singles. Wolves catcher Koa Won made a diving catch on a foul pop-up of Reno leadoff hitter Braden Jones, and Evans struck out Logan Ford.

After walking UCLA commit Mack Edwards, Evans got Braden Jones to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

“I felt great, first inning. I was coming out throwing strikes, and breaking ball was doing really well,” Evans said. “I was getting up early in counts. I just felt really good all game. … The defense helped me out a lot in this game.”

Troy Southisene’s RBI single in the first gave Basic a 1-0 lead. Gabe Giron added an RBI single in the second, and Lyndon Lee had an RBI single in the third.

“We didn’t put up as many runs as we wanted to, but a win’s a win and we did what we came here to do,” Evans said. “We have a lot of grit as a team and a lot of determination. We’re super close. This gets us really going good for tomorrow.”

Friday will be the seventh meeting between Basic and Faith Lutheran this season, with the Wolves holding a 4-2 edge. The teams played three times in last week’s Southern Region playoffs, including twice in the title game Saturday. After Faith Lutheran won the first game and handed Basic its first loss of the double-elimination region tournament, the Wolves turned around and won the second game to get the title and South’s No. 1 seed in the state tournament.

“It’s like we’ve been living with each other the last couple weeks,” DiMaria said. “It’s going to be a battle. We’re even, and it’s just who comes out and executes and plays the overall game the correct way.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.